There is often a need to construct temporary structures, for example, storage warehouses, workshops, offices or even living accommodation, and increasingly shipping containers, or shipping container sized modules are attempted to be used in these situations.
Shipping containers, and in particular used shipping containers, provide a relatively low cost structural component that are large and strong enough to form a work or dwelling space by itself, and/or to form a structural support for a larger building.
When shipping containers are used by themselves, or perhaps as a series of containers positioned side by side, one of the problems is the lack of insulation, particularly in the roof of the containers. This leads to a number of problems. The interior can heat up during the day, and then become very cold at night. When used for storage, this can lead to sweating of the stored goods when the temperatures are high, followed by condensation of the moisture when the temperature drops. The condensation can produce droplets that rain down, or drain onto the stored goods which can cause damage and extra cost.
When shipping containers are used as structural supports for larger buildings, for example to form a warehouse, an emergency medical center, a workshop or hangar, there is a need for additional structure to form a roof for the building. The construction of the roof section can be extremely difficult and time consuming, and it can be difficult to transport the required building materials. In cases where the building needs to be erected in a very short time, for example when providing a building in an emergency relief situation, it is important that such transportation and construction difficulties are minimized.
Other problems occur because of the multitude of variations of heights, widths, length containers especially when comparing each side of a building which form the wall which need to be of similar height to allow a roof section to span there between and be level. This problem of different heights or length containers cause some containers to not be able to be used which can further limit the usefulness of all containers as being readily available as part of a building structure. Shipping containers have corner castings with twist lock assemblies which also vary in size and position on the corners thereby preventing any standard methods of using them with other components of a building other than just connecting to the top of the container which does not provide a standard robust and predictable jointing system that can be relied upon structurally and practically and also does not allow for ready construction or assembly or disassembly.
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